Wish upon the supernova. Before it blinds you.

      Yes, another blog post about stars. Well they look cool, and it beats talking about things like fuel cells, so why not! Recently, two supernovae have been discovered by astronomers who are a part of the Supernova Legacy Survey. Though these stars won't blind you, the output of energy from these two supernovae is so immense that astronomers were initially unsure of their classification and location.
       I'm usually blinded by the faint bathroom light when I first wake up in the morning, but these supernovae are one-hundred times brighter than supernovas normally are! A new, recently discovered supernova, SNLS-06D4eu (yes, the amount of thought that must have gone into that name is incredible), is so bright that it falls into the category of superluminous supernovae which are separated from other supernovae due to their luminosity and the absence of hydrogen in their composition. These amazingly bright stars can account their bright lights to their rapid rotations caused by their magnetic field which classify them as magnetars. These magnetars spin hundreds of times per second. As stated in the article,  "Magnetars have the mass of the sun packed into a star the size of a city and have magnetic fields a hundred trillion times that of Earth." Imagine the mass of the sun packed into New York City! The UV rays of light produced by this supernova would not normally be seen by the human eye, but the expansion of the universe stretches these wavelengths allowing them to be seen with out eyes. Imagine the tan we would get from these UV rays if the ozone layer wasn't here to protect us. We'd probably look like burnt french fries! Anyway, this supernova exploded when the universe was only four billion years old. Those were the days. Read more in the article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131218133835.htm
        The amount of energy which we see as light produced by these supernovae is mind-boggling! In my chemistry class conducted a flame test of a magnesium coil, and this light alone was almost too bright for our eyes. Meanwhile there are supernovae such as these two which are one-hundred times brighter than a normal supernova. No big deal! It's really interesting to me how these supernovae generate this unbelievable amounts of energy by rapidly spinning. I know electrons spin continuously which may partly play a role in the charge of an electron. Therefore I think of these supernovae as giant electrons, and then the amount of energy they produce is really not surprising! I'm genuinely curious as to how the magnetic fields created by continuous revolutions plays a role in the energy created by masses such as these supernovae.

Make a wish.